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Arlington, Texas, Airport Adding Tower, Radio Landing System

Posted on: Monday, 7 November 2005, 18:00 CST

By Susan Schrock, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Nov. 6--ARLINGTON -- A new control tower and high-tech instrument landing system are expected to make the Arlington Municipal Airport safer and more competitive with other area airports, the airport's manager said.

The control tower, largely funded by a $1.375 million federal grant, is expected to become operational in January. The $2.5 million instrument landing system, paid for completely by the Federal Aviation Administration, is expected to be in use by 2007.

The improvements are designed to aid pilots in safely landing and taking off, and should attract new customers to the south Arlington airport, which has an average 147,000 flights a year, airport manager Bob Portersaid.

"These amenities will help the airport become the corporate choice of the Metroplex," Porter said.

The airport has expanded significantly in the past 17 years through more than $30 million in federal funding, which has included extending and strengthening the runway and acquiring 150 more acres, Porter said.

The airport houses 22 businesses, including five flights schools and Bell Helicopter Textron, and serves recreational and other private pilots as well as corporate cargo and passenger planes.

As part of the project, antennas placed along the runway will send radio signals to pilots' instruments to help them precisely locate where to land. This is especially useful when fog or overcast skies reduce visibility, said Les Cothron, a pilot who has used Arlington Municipal Airport for more than 30 years.

"There are times in which it can be hard to find," said Cothron, who has had three near-misses at the airport's runway. "The tower and the precision instrument approach will allow you to find the airport easier and much safer."

Arlington, which has worked for 15 years to receive federal funding for the projects, is one of the last general aviation airports in the Metroplex to gain a tower and instrument landing system, Porter said.

Meacham, Spinks and Alliance airports in Fort Worth all have control towers and instrument landing systems. After Spinks Airport added a control tower in 2001, air traffic there rose from 33,000 flights a year to 82,000, said Mike Feeley, airport systems director for the city of Fort Worth.

"The corporate operators like the safety and security of the control tower and the ILS, knowing they can get in and out of the airport" regardless of the weather, Feely said.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

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Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas)

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